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I know I’m new but, I tried MANY dp's and the Roland FP7f is WAY overrated, The Kawai ES7 is far superior to Roland. In fact, I’m not sure way everyone thinks Roland is the best?? I’m not a professional, however I appreciate good piano sound and action. Roland has very good sound and good but clunky action at a ridicules price compared to Kawai and Yamaha. Are people just afraid to say that Roland really isn’t the best of the best? Pleae tell me what I am missing!!BTW, after careful and thorough shopping I decided on the Kawai CA95. Why? Great price. Great quality. Great sound. Great action. Great HONEST value. Yes, Roland is great at one thing I must say… marketing!! So glad I did not fall for the Roland marketing machine.

No, I'm with you, the Roland FP7F is overrated. But that's just my opinion, and yours, the keyboard bottoms out too hard and the SN piano is twangy, whining and metallic. But, the dynamic response through headphones is great.

Others on here say the RD700NX Studio piano does not suffer the twangy, whining metal. But you would still have to like the SN tone, and that exists on the newer range from Roland.

The FP7F also has a strange half useful, half useless set of features for a stage piano. Again IMHO.

The experience I had was exactly the opposite: first choice was going to be a Yamaha because of their reputation overall for high quality for a good price (all instruments - not just DPs). I ruled out Roland as the advice seemed to be that they are expensive and you pay for the name, and I did not want to do that.

Then, the enthusiasm for Kawai on this site almost convinced me to go for a CN43 or CA13. There is an almost hallowed respect for Kawai here which is very compelling.

But on eventually trying the three brands as well as Casio & Korg side by side in a newly discovered shop, I had to admit that Roland was significantly better than price-equivalent DPs (comparison with Roland HPs, Yamaha Clavinovas and Kawai MP6)....curious how different people feel & hear things very differently.

Unfortunately, there weren't other Kawai's on display - maybe if there had been, I'd have changed my mind, but judging by dewster's DPBSD thread and youtube samples, I doubt it.

Even if you don't like the SN sound, good luck doing any realistic intimate solo recording with any other DP (including the Avant Grand, sadly Yamaha seems dead in the water sound-wise). I honestly don't know how anyone retains their sanity listening to the same loops day after day. It's really too bad Roland didn't pick the Studio to put in every SN DP - maybe next NAMM if anyone is listening and puts any stock in my feeble rants.

I don't know how many people around here think Roland is the best. Certainly the brand has many fans. The action is real quick and rather light, but I also felt that it was clunky when I played it recently. I liked the Rolands I played through their speakers but when I subjected the FP7F to close scrutiny with my headphones I was less impressed. I'm less sensitive to looping artifacts than synthetic sounds, though--SuperNatural Rolands have no looping but some synthesis. Many listeners here feel the opposite way. I'm actually one who really likes the onboard sounds of the AvantGrands, for example.

We should remember that the ES7 is a brand new piano and has been exceptionally rated since it came out. It is a close competitor to the FP7F, but the FP7F was around for a long time making other stage pianos look bad before that. Basically it seems like Kawai came out with the ES7 to bury the FP7F, and they did a good job. One of our members here, dmd, recently got rid of his CA-63 in favor of an ES7, so you know it's a good piano.

I'm with dewster, though. If you have a critical ear, VST's are the only solution.

I believe one of the reasons for Roland's popularity on this forum is because the 'Super Natural' sound engine performs well in dewster's 'DPBSD' test. However, Roland DPs typically have a strong feature set, playable keyboard actions, and good build quality.

In my opinion, Yamaha, Kawai, Roland, and more recently Casio, all produce excellent instruments for the various price ranges. It's no longer possible to say that 'Yamaha is better than Kawai', or 'Kawai is better than Roland' - each manufacturer has something of value to offer the player.

Here in the US, the ES7 and the FP-7F are the same price. I've not had the opportunity to play the ES7, but until recently I owned both the MP6 and the FP-7F. Neither one was perfect, but they each had some very strong points and some fairly glaring deficiencies.

As many have noted, whether or not you like the SN sound, the action to sound connection is exemplary in the Roland, the dynamics are superb, the harmonics blend very well, and the non-looped decay is so much more natural than in most DPs - all adding up to a very expressive playing experience. I was able to forget I was playing a DP, and just concentrate on the music for the most part - and that's unusual for me.

The downsides are the poor EPs, the lack of editable effects, the inability of the speakers to adequately handle certain bass samples, the slightly hard bottoming out of the action (although it never caused me undue fatigue), and the slightly dull/muddy quality of the main piano sound (I never had a problem with metallic ringing - but then my hearing is not what it was!).

I won't speculate about the ES7 except to say that it shares the same PHI sound engine with the MP6, and that although those samples have more clarity than SN sounds, the MP6 did not have the same overall playability or realistic decay that the Roland offers. It has many other fine qualities though, and I feel sure that the ES7 improves on the MP6 in many ways.

_________________________"you don't need to have been a rabbit in order to become a veterinarian"

It has been already said many times: it's all up to our taste and ears. More layers or a better blend or larger decay are good themselves, but for some (btw not few) people, certain not-so-advanced DPs sound better than those with the last of the last, and same in regards to keybeds and sound presets (many of us are into the theoretically worse 2nd pack, not into Concert Grand 1).I really want to see how the ES7 performs Dewer's test. I'm almost sure it will pass it with a good mark.However, and talking strictly about solo piano sounds, I find ES7 to be very challenging and difficult to play, and sometimes weird (central do scale). As there is soooo many experienced people in love with it, it must be me who's not able to find a balanced sound and, then, record it properly. What sounds good on cans, doesn't through boxes and when you record it...no way! Those sweet and mellow bass tones are now overloud, or the sound is distant and pale, or whatever. I figure it's the same with all brands and models, and it's up to us and not the DPs.